Somewhere in the Ferl Kingdom

A deep, loud sound reverberated in the air in a rhythmic manner while at the same time the earth seemed to shook. Contemporaneously, the sound of metal hitting against metal could be heard from time to time, if one payed attention. A group of players were taking a break from a long morning of hard work in grinding levels when they began hearing them.

The group of players was offside a road, this road wasn’t paved but the frequent utilize made the earth quite compacted and solid. Around them were many oak trees, tall and thin, tried to obscure the midday sun but the vibrant color of the green leaves seemed to think otherwise, reflecting the light with a strange ease and illuminating the group under them.

“What is this sound? ..No, better yet, what is that?”

One player spoke. He pointed toward one end of the road, the opposite direction from the town they had come from. What he indicated was a group of knights walking in an orderly fashion. Their metal armor was coloured a dull blue, with some even sporting a white plumage on top of their helms. A stem of a white coiled griffon was on the breastplate of each of the knights and even on the two flags carried by two young men.

“Nh? Don’t you know? After Thyw’s Lord died along with his first son, the second son took over. Then, because of how he treated women like they were objects, some player (or so the rumours say) incited the townspeople to revolt. After their rebellion, like a chain reaction, many nearby villages and town did the same. Well, I don’t know what exactly the village rebelled against, but you get the idea. Anyway, those guys are the King’s Knights, probably making their move to suppress or try to control this streaks of revolts.”

“I.. I see..”

The group continued to quietly observe as the armoured men passed by them, showing how, other than knights, they had brought mages too. The mages wore light robes of the same dull blue of the knight’s armour, with the same symbol too. As they proceeded ahead, the group could see that at the end of the line of the troop there were another two men carrying the flags with, obviously, the same colours and symbol.

Some consequences I

Aren’t they similar?

Uh? What the hell are you talking about?

^^quote

I dunno. They seem different to me

Bah. You’re all retards.

>You’re all retards.

What’s your problem?

Mh, their techniques are similar, their built is similar.. the only difference is the hair color and the face. For example, the white haired girl doesn’t have that mole under the eye and.. read more>>

I’m still not convinced..

A small discussion was started a day or so after the media station where Sonia, Abigail’s mother, works released a video. The video was about the defense of a village from the attacks of mountain and forest mobs of the western territory of Hyria. It was the gameplay of five different players and was divided in three parts, one for each wave.

The video was about 2 hours long, as it only showed the more interesting bits of the five players’ battle. A little blond girl with a red ribbon in shining armour battling to the death with a group of spider-dogs (the name the players called the Waira). A sexy succubus helping her flying comrades repel a group of Tengus and then their battle against the Tengu’s boss.

The newbie who slew a dragon’s poor attempt at archery. The red-haired companion of the dragon slayer fighting in the front line with various monsters and allies, which were then revealed to be enemies in disguise. A group of mages aiding in the killing of a gigantic black centipede. Then a break.

The second part was mostly the same, only that the dragon slayer played a different, more exciting role. She ran alone toward the enemy and, uncaring about everything, she positioned herself right in the middle of the monsters’ territory. Taking out two swords, the dragon slayer used her dual wielding skills to cut down all the monsters that dared to attack her, not even missing those that attacked from behind.

When the doppelgängers appeared, the girl threw away her katanas and took out two daggers. Even when the monster assumed her appearance, they didn’t stand a chance. The difference in skills was obvious to all. Some people wondered why was she wasting so many daggers, but they only didn’t stop to think that, in the heat of battle, any unnecessary actions could cost you your life.

The black haired girl then switched to wielding a single sword when the spider-dogs appeared. It was somewhat gross when she effortlessly cut them in half and their innards flew everywhere, mostly on her. The more she fought, the more she bathed in their organs. Some finally understood why the program was tagged mature.

Then came the fight against the homeless druids (the Abura-sumashi). The merciless way she killed them was what made most people believe she was the white haired girl, as their methods and moves were the most similar in this part. Lastly was her fight with the dwarven-elves (the Kijinuma) and their summoned creature, a giant flying catfish with the power to shake the earth.

After she used the same tactic she adopted against the dragon and killed the dwarven-elves, though, the girl was killed. Another break came after they showed the mages and the airborne group collaborating to kill the catfish.

In the last part many more Tengus appeared, even accompanied by two bosses. There weren’t any weasel-like creatures, in their place appeared some sort of treants (the Kodama) which only mages were able to kill. The red-haired girl died while fighting some of them. This time the boss was the commander of the dwarven-elves, who directed a group of his brethren against the village. They fought by summoning different creatures of the forest, the commander used two scaled down versions of the giant black centipede.

As before, the video was nothing special, thus it didn’t have many views, but some of the people who had watched it and had seen the video “the Birth of Nyarlathotep” noticed the similarities and started a discussion on the official forum of Hyria. This forum was moderated by Crathos Inc. and contained all the information they released, plus the information the players decided to condivide.

Some time ago in the past

“Bye mom.”

“Goodbye, dear.”

Elizabeth smiled as she watched her little girl trot toward the entrance of her school. Her eyes moistened a bit as she thought about the incident three years ago. The incident where her husband died and her poor daughter was shot, thus losing her emotions. The doctor said Lia could only feel strong emotions now, but Elizabeth began doubting his statement.

A tear flowed down her cheek as she recalled her little girl’s apathetic expression when she knew her father had died. Her cold, emotionless expression never changed. Her eye seemed to be made of glass as it showed no will to live nor emotion. Gripping the steering wheel hard, Elizabeth drove toward her workplace.

It was difficult to work in the building where the incident happen, still her family needed money, not as many as when her Mike died, but someone had to work and certainly a eight year old girl couldn’t sustain a family of two. Her parents and Mike’s helped them, even if they could offer only a part of their pensions and Elizabeth hated owning others money.

It was harsh, but she couldn’t stop. She couldn’t embrace her husband anymore. She couldn’t see her daughter’s smile anymore. But. Lia was alive, and, even if the glimmer of hope was fragile and nowhere to be seen, Elizabeth hoped with all of her being that she would one day feel emotions once again.

Parking the car in front of the garage, she watched her house. Memories of her life with Mike, of Lia’s cute baby laughs when she played with her parents, of the three of them sleeping together. Elizabeth brought her hands over her face and began sobbing as countless tears ran down her cheeks.

Somehow in an abandoned temple in the mountains

“That was cool, right Shizu?”

“Yeah. But what do we do now, Kaari? Do we accept?”

The boy and the girl stared at the notifications in front of them. They were twins, their only difference was that Kaari had curly hair while Shizu’s were straight. Their hair was black with streaks of orange, just like their leather armor. They also wore a black gauntlet on different arms, Kaari on his left and Shizu on her right arm.

After a week wasted in climbing the mountain, they were only halfway. Exhausted by the weather, the cold snow under their feet and the tension there was while they climbed, they didn’t notice monsters approaching them while they were preparing food. The consequence was that they had to climb the mountain from the start once again.

It took them another month, considering even the time the two spent clearing the mobs inside the temple. At the peak of the mountain, this rundown temple seemed like it was looking down upon the whole world. At the entrance, though, there was a curious symbol of a spear inside a circle.

“..Yeah, why not.”

And so, the two accepted their roles as Lífþrasir (Kaari) and Líf (Shizu), becoming the representatives of the north two months after Xin Jen’s third expedition started.

Some consequences II

“That is all, Leader.”

Vael continued to stare at his subordinate, not bothering to hide his murderous aura. The subordinate, a middle-aged man, was already habituated to Vael’s temperament and mentality after staying by his side for years. He bowed and left the room, silence taking over his role to accompany Oblitus Mori’s leader.

“Aisha, uh..?”

Vael stared at the door of his room. His hands closed into fists, the force he used in that motion only, cause his knuckles to crack. Without batting an eyelid, he repeated in his head the report over and over, his rage rising nonstop. He breathed out some air from his mouth and logged out to sleep, but not before making a solemn vow to himself with an arrogant tone.

“I am going to make you pay for this affront.”

Go check out Reboot 1, I put an image of the Dragon Slaying Lia ahah~